An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Volume 2 eBook

The weather in the last month was remarked to be uncommonly
cold. In the latter part of this it was excessively
sultry, and the wind high, which set many parts of
the country on fire, and destroyed some property.
The surveyor-general’s house, and every article
in it, was consumed by one of these conflagrations.

September.] The Barwell being ready for sea,
she dropped down the harbour on the 12th, and sailed
the 17th of this month for China. Captain Cameron,
her commander, was allowed to receive on board about
50 persons who had completed their period of transportation,
and politely offered to touch at Norfolk Island, for
the purpose of landing any people whom the governor
might have occasion to send thither. In this ship
Mr. Robert Campbell, who arrived here in the Hunter
from Bengal, took his passage to China. By this
gentleman the governor addressed a letter to the governor-general
of India, informing his lordship, that having transmitted
to the Secretary of State copies of the letters upon
the subject of raising recruits in this country for
the army in India, which had been received in the
year 1796*, by the officers who were sent from Calcutta
in the Britannia, it was the opinion of his
Majesty’s ministers, that the inconveniences
attending such a measure would more than counter-balance
the advantages of it, and that permission for that
purpose could not therefore be granted.

[* See Vol I Ch. XXXI, viz ’On board of
this ship arrived two officers of the Bengal army,
Lieutenant Campbell and Mr. Phillips, a surgeon of
the military establishment for the purpose of raising
two hundred recruits from among those people who had
served their respective terms of transportation.
They were to be regularly enlisted and attested, and
were to receive bounty-money; and a provisional engagement
was made with Mr. Raven, to convey them to India, if
no other service should offer for his ship.’]

Indeed, had it been adopted, the army in India could
not have been much benefited; since, if the recruiting
officers were nice as to the point of character, small
would be the number of their recruits, and, if not
overnice in this particular, small would be the portion
of morality that they would introduce.

In order to encourage as far as possible the rearing
of swine in the colony, as well as of every other
kind of live stock, a circumstance that must not only
prove a great benefit to the public, but be also highly
to the advantage of those who devoted a part of their
time to this useful purpose, and which, from the advanced
state of the private farms, might now be done with
far less trouble and expense than formerly, the settlers
and others were informed, that when any individual
should have prepared a number of such animals fit
for the public store, they might make the same known
to the commissary, who, in order to prevent any unnecessary
expense to the feeder, would give immediate notice
of the day and place when and where he would receive
them. He was also at liberty to enter into an
agreement or contract for a certain length of time,
and on such conditions as should be agreed, with any
person who would engage to furnish the public store
either at Sydney, Parramatta, or the Hawkesbury, with
any certain quantity at stated periods.